Crystal Eyes
by ScarletSeraph
Summary: Worlds end, and worlds begin again...somewhere else, somewhere new. Love will not allow otherwise. Nephrite x Jadeite - light yaoi.


The evening wind raced across the field, rippling the waves of grass as easily as if they were the waters of the sea, until they reached the lone form standing alone on the rocks at cliff's end. There, they caught the ends of a cape of pristine white and hair of sunlit blonde, the latter far too short to mimic the motions of the satin river as it flowed back from his form. 

"You've waited a long time," came the murmured words upon that breeze; the gentle voice he had always prayed he would hear again, and had never been granted. Until now, perhaps, unless he dreamt again. He had before. 

"I have," he agreed, nodding; though he did not yet turn. He would have been loathe to admit it, but he feared what nightmare would face him if he did, rather than the visage he so longed for. 

"And I came," the other replied, "as I promised." Softly, a white-gloved hand lifted, cupping his cheek. Eyes of topaz blue fell shut beneath their veils of golden lashes, and he tipped his head into that touch. For long moments, he did not dare to speak, let alone move; even his very breath stilling before words finally found their way once more to his tongue. 

"Do I dream?" 

"Yes." His companion nodded, those slender fingers shifting quickly to catch the single tear that slid down the cheek against which they rested, and soak it into the fabric between flesh and flesh. "But not as you once did." 

"Are we then..." His voice faltered, and he swallowed dryly. "...dead?" 

"No. You dream," came the amused response; and he could easily imagine the laughter sparkling in the sapphire eyes, so like his own. "I, on the other hand...do not." 

He nodded once, quietly; not knowing what else to say to that. 

"We always knew it would come to this, Jade-san..." Again, the white-clad fingers caressed the side of his face, falling away to curl beneath his chin and tip his head to the left. Still, his eyes remained closed, unwilling to take the chance that he might yet wake. "Even had we not been brought down by the light, the darker regent would surely have destroyed us, as soon as we were no longer needed." Far warmer than the breeze that whispered on his other side, a rush of breath swept across his ear with the utterance of the final word; and the lips from which it passed brushed forward to meet the corner of his own. 

"We came to nothing," he muttered bitterly against that mouth, that ethereal kiss. "You are dead, and I am dreaming." 

"The dead go where they well, Jade-san." Back, the half-amused tone, the restrained laughter; and the other arm lifted to go around his waist and pull him close. "And I am going nowhere else, now..." 

"You lie!" Yanking himself harshly from the embrace, the younger man spun to face his companion. "I dream, and I wake..." 

"...and I am here," Nephrite finished smoothly, the corners of his mouth quirked upward in bemusement - but gently so. "Your eyes are open, Jadeite-san. You are awake. And you will sleep, again, and I will rest beside you. There is naught to fear, now...the world is ours, if not the one we had first sought; and there are no others who would wish to claim it." The wind caught his hair, that glorious mane of chestnut silk, and set it to dancing around his face. "We are alone, together. Isn't that what you always wanted?" 

"Not like this." Weakly, he sank to his knees, fingers curling around a thicket of dew-wet grass and ripping it from the soil. "Never like this." 

"Perhaps...but you have no other choices, now." Death, too, perhaps does some good - calming those who in life had been impatient and tempered with fire. The once-king merely shook his head slowly, gazing at the man. "I could leave, of course...but I know you will not ask for that." 

"No." Jadeite's turn, now, to shake his head, and rest his cheek once more into Nephrite's palm as it dipped to run through the golden tendrils. "Never." 

"You will get used to it." Nephrite lowered himself to one knee, leaning forward to dust another gentle kiss to the blonde king's lips. Ah, how I've missed you, my darling... "I did." 

"And you will stay?" His own white-gloved hands lifted to sink into the thicker mane of Nephrite's hair and curl around the strands, clinging, like a child to a favoured blanket. 

"I will." He but nodded, thereafter, and sent his arm back around Jadeite's waist. Settling beside the younger man, he raised his eyes to the darkening sky, and smiled faintly. "I remember playing here as a child...I promised you then that I would never leave you. Who could have imagined then that one glimmering of moonlight could have made me break that vow?" 

"But you came." Jadeite smiled faintly, letting his head fall to rest on Nephrite's shoulder. 

"Yes. I did," he answered simply, tipping his head to nuzzle against the other's. He fell silent, then, waiting for the soft glow of moonlight to rise once more into the night and illuminate the crystal eyes of his lover. 


End file.
